Mindshare Hires New Chief Data Strategy Officer Away From Merkle

Shane McAndrew arrives in the role

WPP media agency Mindshare hired a new chief data strategy officer to further integrate data and analytics into its media planning operations.

Shane McAndrew comes to the role with over 20 years of experience across digital, marketing and ad tech, most recently overseeing global business and client development, market strategy, establishing best practices and scaling teams for global markets as svp, global product growth at Merkle.

Mindshare’s former chief data officer, Rolf Olsen, left for OMD last May. According to the agency, McAndrew’s position will expand on that role.

“Shane embodies a unique combination of art, inventiveness, and science for the role. With his collaborative leadership style and future-forward vision, he’ll capitalize on the collective intelligence across our teams to deliver data-driven plans and innovations that solve our client’s most complex challenges,” Mindshare U.S. CEO Adam Gerhart said in a statement. “Data is only as good as the imagination that uses it, and Shane is the rare talent that can both galvanize and inspire to bring out the very best of our teams and provoke our clients to push in new directions.”

“Mindshare is one of the few agencies that actually combines an entrepreneurial spirit with the power of scale,” McAndrew added. “It allows someone like me to push new approaches, ideas, and beta testing, while having the rigor of discipline and best practices to ground the thinking. It’s the ideal place to inspire teams.”

McAndrew served as vice president, strategy and planning and head of audience strategy and involvement at Merkle before being promoted to svp. Before joining the firm in 2015, he served in leadership roles at Moxie and Visual IQ.

The arrival follows several new business wins, with Buffalo Wild Wings sending its media account to Mindshare in November and Newell Brands consolidating its account with WPP last month.